“Can’t we discuss this after we find Landy?”
This guy is so clueless. “We could, but what if the person you’re after took her to get you off his tail?”
A vein in his forehead throbs. “If he did, the mistake will be the last he ever makes.”
Suds pulls to the side of the road, gun out. “Spill. Who are you trying to find? We got a right to know.”
Sighing, Dash pulls out his phone, swipes, and hands it to me.
I read the headline aloud, “Department of State offers reward for information to bring Chinese fentanyl trafficker to justice.”
I scroll down, scan the text, and stop. “Five million dollars? Holy shit. That’s a lot of dough.”
The bounty hunter nods and waits for a noisy truck to pass before saying more. “This new drug you discovered has him written all over it. More lethal, more addictive, more money.”
Suds clicks his tongue. “And you didn’t think to let us know this at the time you hired us?”
“Apologies, but too much is at stake.” The millionaire doesn’t sound at all sorry to me.
Apparently, the sincerity is lacking for my partner, too. “We would’ve played this a whole lot differently had we known.” Neck muscles twitching, he glances in the rear view, puts the car in gear, and pebbles ping the back bumper as he takes to the road.
Unclenching my fists, I give back my client’s phone, and open mine. When the meme pops up, I connect to the car’s Bluetooth, then go to work. “Jason, I need every common thread between Jian Zhang, CloudTekToys, and The Kings.”
The geek blinks out the screen. “Searching. This could take several hours. Would you like to wait, or can I call you back?”
Taking my eyes off the road, I turn to the guy who makes millions off other people’s work and hand him my Samsung. “Tell the application everything you know.”
While they work, we pass a sign and I point. “Look, only sixty miles to Blaine.”
Using my laptop and my FBI credentials, I log on using a VPN. My persona has big bucks and specializes in black market information. With no cat to roll on my keyboard, I’m pretty sure I won’t be discovered.
Tor, the dark web browser, prevents newbies from seeing anything but the most basic sites. I easily bypass those gates and dive deep into the bowels of illegal marketing. Using a menu, I’d previously found, I click on government intel and narrow my search for anything new. Thinking I’m close, I have Jarkon, the Jason of the dark web join me.
To differentiate him from the white hat, this AI version wears a dark suit, dark sunglasses and frowns a lot. His voice is gravelly, like a guy who spent most his life smoking unfiltered Camels.
“Find CloudTekToys.” I know we’re missing something.
“Searching…”
When an authentication webpage pops up, I show it to Dash. “Can you log in?”
After he enters a username and password, I whistle through my teeth at the extraordinary buffet of stolen data. I can choose political, financial, art… Hell, I can even get the latest ideas from top Netflix execs.
I click on political, and another dropdown appears. This one has famous names in alphabetical order. The higher up in government, the bigger the dollar amount. “Holy shit, didn’t any of these guys consider how having a doll with an internal listening device and camera eyes might be a security risk?”
Suds answers. “I suppose they figured they were safe, as long as it was powered off.”
“Yeah, the big on-off switch on the back of the neck. What a joke.”
Our forlorn client shakes his head. “I really don’t see how this is helping us to find Landy.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Suds
As Dash and Sam work the case, I drive past a green marker, ‘Welcome to Blaine’. To the north, the morning sun lights up the eastern side of a mountain. It’s snowy peak blazes in yellows, pinks, and oranges, matching the low-hanging clouds. Judging by the names on the local businesses, I’m guessing the huge summit ahead is Mt. Baker.
The map lady directs me to Yorky’s Market, where one of the employees used his credit card.
